The present disclosure relates to an ink-jet recording apparatus provided with a recording portion having a recording head that ejects ink onto a recording medium such as a paper sheet.
An ink-jet recording apparatus that ejects ink and forms an image with the ink is capable of forming a high-definition image and thus has been widely used as a recording apparatus such as a facsimile, a copy machine, or a printer.
Conventionally, in an ink-jet recording apparatus, in order to prevent drying and clogging of an ejection nozzle of a recording head, typically, the recording head is kept capped in a case where printing is not scheduled to be performed for a long period of time. Furthermore, it is also common to perform a recovery process in which ink thickened in the ejection nozzle is forcibly extruded through the ejection nozzle and wiped off by a wiper. Thus, in the ink-jet recording apparatus, there are provided a recording head that ejects ink onto a recording medium, a cap unit having a cap portion that caps the recording head, and a wipe unit that performs a recovery process with respect to the recording head.
In the ink-jet recording apparatus described above, since it is required that the cap unit be moved between an opposed position opposed to the recording head and a retracted position retracted from the recording head, there are provided a horizontal movement mechanism that moves the cap unit in a horizontal direction and an ascending/descending mechanism that moves the cap unit in an up-down direction.
In a case of capping the recording head, the cap portion is disposed so as to come into tight contact with an ink ejection surface of the recording head. In a case of not capping the recording head, the cap portion is disposed at the retracted position retracted from the recording head.
The ascending/descending mechanism is composed of, for example, four pivot arms that are disposed below the wipe unit and each pivot about a lower end thereof as a fulcrum and a motor that drives the pivot arms. Two pivot arms are secured to both ends of a connection shaft, respectively, forming a pivot arm portion. Two such pivot arm portions are provided. A tip end (a swing end) of each of the pivot arms supports the wipe unit and moves the wipe unit in the up-down direction. When each of the pivot arms pivots down so as to be horizontal, the wipe unit descends to be disposed at a lowermost position, while when each of the pivot arms pivots up so as to be vertical, the wipe unit ascends to be disposed at an uppermost position.